Antifriction bearing arrangement for spindles and the like



Sept. 29, 1959 1 H. DE LANGEN 2,906,087

ANTIFRICTION BEARING ARRANGEMENT FOR SPINDLES AND THE LIKE Filed Sept.19. 1955 INVENTOR United States Patent O ANTIFRICTION BEARINGARRANGEMENT FOR SPINDLES AND THE LIKE Lambertus Hendrik de Langen,Arnhem, Netherlands, assignor to American Erika Corporation, Enka, N.C.,a corporation 'of Delaware Application September 19, '1955, Serial No.`535,237

Claims priority, application Netherlands September 21, 1954 1 Claim.(Cl. 57-77.45)

This invention relates to the twisting of yarns and threads yand is moreparticularly concerned with an antifriction bearing arrangement for themounting of a twister spindle for very high speed operation.

It is, of course, known in the twisting arts that the rate at whichtwisting can be accomplished is dependent upon how fast the twistingspindle can be turned. This is apparent when one bears in mind .thattwist exists in the form of convolutions per unit length and the fasterthe convolutions can be made the faster the unit length of thread canmove through the twisting area. At the present time not only aretwisting spindles widely used but spindles for false twisting areemployed for imparting curl to thermoplastic synthetic iibers. Hereagain the speed of the false twister in a. measure controls how fast thecurl-ing operation may take place.

It is well known in the antifriction bearing art that tball and rollerbearings can support shafts or spindles for :rotation at m'uch higherspeeds than plain bearings. On the other hand, even ball and rollerbearings are limited by the speed at which the ba'lls or rollers may ebeturned with the result that a modern twisting spindle even in a ballbearing mount is incapable of rotating at :a high enough speed fully toexploit the high speed take nlp devices which are available today to thetextile infdustry.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide anantifriction bearing in which the speed of the rotating member maygreatly exceed the speed limitations normally imposed by the ball orroller elements.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a falsetwister spindle capable of tremendous rotational speed whereby aprocessing operation such as imparting curl to thermoplastic yarn may beperformed at speeds greatly in excess of those achieved by the priorart.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention Will be apparentupon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferredembodiment thereof in conjunction with the single figure of drawingwherein the invention is shown in application to a false twister forimparting curl to thermoplastic yarn, the bearing arrangement of thepresent invention being shown in vertical section.

ln the drawing the numeral represents a stationary frame on which ahollow -spindle 11 is mounted for high speed rotation. The 'upper end ofthe hollow spindle 11 enters rthe hub 12 of the dish or balloon guidingassembly 13. This assembly comprises a belt pulley 14, a flared member15 for balloon control and a cylindrical yarn wrapping surface 16connected to the hollow interior of the spindle 11 by ports 17. It willbe recognized that the thread to be twisted enters the hollow interiorof the spindle 11 at the bottom of the spindle as lit appears in thefigure of drawing. It moves upwardly Patented Sept. 29, 1959 rial No.450,486, filed August 17, 1954, now abandoned,

which is commonly owned herewith and the disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein.

The present invention is concerned with the bearings which mount thespindle 11 for very high speed rotation. A roller bearing cage 18 ismounted in a sleeve 19 which also mounts a ball bearing cage 20 at itsopposite end. The axial displacement of the cage 20 out of the sleeve 19is prevented by a stop ring 21 and the axial displacement of the rollerbearing cage 18 out of the sleeve 19 is prevented by an annular disc 22.Between the cages 18 and 20 there extends a positioning coil spring 23.At the upper end of the sleeve 19, the outer surface is formed to definea belt pulley 24. The lower outer surface of the sleeve 19 isy set in aball bearing race 25 which is held in a fixed sleeve 26 between a ring27 and a coil spring 2S. The upper end of the coil spring 28 acts on thebottom of a roller bearing assembly 29 which is positioned by an annulardisc 30. The sleeve 26 is capped at the top with a cap 31 through whichthe sleeve 19 and its contents project and the bottom thereof is cappedby a cap 32 through which the hollow end of the spindle 11 projects. Anut 33 holds the sleeve 26 in fixed relation to the frame 10.

It can now be seen that the sleeve 26 is a stationary part but thatsleeve 19 is yso mounted that it may rotate not only relative to thespindle 11 but likewise relative to the sleeve 26. If now a belt isconnected to the pulley 24 and the pulley is driven at about 40,000r.p.m. in relation to the stationary sleeve 26, and if another belt isconnected to the pulley 14 and it is driven at about 80,000 r.p.m.relative to the sleeve 19, it will be seen that the spindle 11 willrotate at 120,000 rpm. in relation to the stationary sleeve 26 or infact the machine frame. This speed is very much beyond the capabilitiesof the ball or roller bearings here disclosed were these bearingsinterposed between the spindle 11 and a fixed part. By interposing afloating rotating sleeve 19, however, the total speed rwhich any one ofthese bearings is required to withstand is within its capabilities. Notethat the distribution of speed is about two to one as between thebearing group 18-20 and the bearing group 25-29. This is due to thedifference in diameter of the two journals with resulting difference inperipheral speed per unit r.p.m.

While the present invention is shown applied to a false twistingspindle, it is apparent that the invention is o-f general utility 'wherea shaft is required to be supported for exceedingly high rotationalspeeds as, for example, in other twisting and textile uses.

What is claimed is:

A high speed thread twisting assembly comprising a rotatable spindlehaving an axial opening formed therein for receiving traveling thread,means defining a radial port in one end of said spindle, said portcommunicating with said axial opening and adapted to receive and impart4twist to said traveling thread uipon rotation of said spindle, a firstdrive pulley secured to said spindle adjacent to said port by which thespindle may be rotated, a rotatable sleeve surrounding said spindle, rstbearing elements mounted within said rotatable sleeve for rotatablysupporting said spindle, a stationary sleeve surrounding said rotatablesleeve, second bearing ele 3 4 ments mounted within said stationarysleeve for rotatably References Cited in the le of this patentsupporting said rotatablesleeve, and a second drive pulley FOREIGNPATENTS secured to said rotatable sleeve by which said sleeve may berotated independently of but in the same direction as 641044 France API"10 1928 said spindle, whereby the relative motion between the 5 Ilrfgng,231, spindle, sleeves and bearing elements may be reduced, 917,537Germany Sept. 6 1954 thereby permitting an increase in the speed ofrotation of said-spindle and `theyli-near speed sof :said `travelingthread.

454,56() Italy Jan. 24, 195Q

